Transparent

I recently got a Kindle Fire, and along with it, a free thirty day subscription to Amazon Prime, so I immediately took advantage of it and sat down to binge watch "Transparent."

The series had gotten quite a bit of recent buzz with its Golden Globe nominations, but I knew it from hearing its star, veteran character actor Jeffrey Tambor, interviewed on the Satellite Radio circuit quite a few months back when the show first took off. I was intrigued, and looking forward to a chance to see it, and I'm glad I finally did.

On the surface the series is about Tambor's Morty/Maura who has lived an entire lifetime with a transgender secret, finally deciding to come out to family, and the world. Maura's journey is brave and sad and inspirational, but as I said, it's on the surface, and not really what the show is about when you get right down to the nitty gritty.

"Transparent" is about secrets, and the prices paid by keeping them. Maura's coming out affects each of her three children distinctly, making them examine their own lives and their own secrets, and how her secret has impacted them growing up as well as in the present. The show has an amazing ensemble cast including standouts Gabby Hoffman, Amy Landecker, Judith Light, and of course Tambor.

As I said, I'm glad I finally got to see "Transparent" but sorry I waited so long. Don't wait. This is very good television, and well worth paying for.

Not the Zsazsa You Think...

Zsazsa Zaturnnah Ze Moveeh ~ Take colorful Filipino comic book superheroics, Bollywood and Broadway musical sensibilities and a gender-bending hero/heroine - and mix well, and you’ll get this movie version of Carlo Vergara’s Zsazsa Zaturnnah.

The secret origin of Zsazsa is one unique in all of comics – meek crossdressing beautician Ada eats a space rock, a big space rock, and becomes the superpowered and female Zsazsa Zaturnnah. It’s even more disturbing than you think, especially the eating the space rock part.

My favorite part is where Zsazsa gets served by the Queen of the dayglo Amazonistas and they have a dance off, I mean, fight, and keep fighting, and dancing, and singing. And apparently the Amazonistas (think Spice Girls from hell) come from the planet where 300 was filmed. Their battle scenes are like the Power Rangers on acid at Wigstock, and that’s a good thing.

There are also zombies and a giant frog, as if the Amazonistas weren’t enough. It’s crazy good fabulous fun, and you won’t believe your eyes, or ears.

WE Empowers Women

In the most recent cable upgrade from Comcast, we were presented with a new channel - We. Now I thought that I had heard of it before, and what I thought I had heard was that it was a 'women's channel,' similar to Oprah's Oxygen or the grandmommy of them all, Lifetime. Their website even says WE Empowers Women. Upon looking at their schedule, I'm not so sure.

Their weekend programming seems to be composed of nothing but old "48 Hours" reruns, something called "Rescue Mediums" - about female psychics who make housecalls, and "John Edward Cross Country." Seems more like a psychic network to me, and wasn't John Edward revealed as a fraud a few years back, and wasn't that why he was taken off the air? Perhaps I've heard wrong on that, but I still don't trust this snake oil salesman. Maybe it's just me, but I don't want to believe I have dead relatives following me around, watching me, all the time, even when I'm on the toilet. Somehow I think there might be better things to do in the afterlife than that.

The We schedule during the week doesn't promise much more than curiosity, the same sort of curiosity one might have to see a freak show maybe. Programs like "Cruel and Unusual Transgender Women in Prison," "Bridezillas," "Unwrapping Macy's," "Girl Meets Cowboy" and more reruns of "Kate & Allie," "Hope & Faith" and "Dharma & Greg" than you can shake a stick at.

And even though it does seem like the psychics/weddings/sitcom-rerun network, I will still give a try. Heck, some of this stuff does sound interesting, especially "Cruel and Unusual Transgender Women in Prison." Hey, at least Comcast didn't give us another golf channel...